Best Antique Store

Karolina’s Antiques

With eight eclectic vendors under one roof, Karolina's boasts a bit of an advantage over most in the category of "Best Antique Store." But the antique-mall format feels fairly organic here, and the variety of vendors translates to a mix that's frequently changing and all over the map. Run by out-and-proud brothers Anthony and Uriel Diaz (who quite literally grew up in the resale biz and have fashioned the family store as a safe haven for the LGBTQ+ community) and named in honor of their grandmother, Karolina's occupies neighboring spaces on the Midtown Blanco corridor and recently reconfigured its space to make room for their stylish new neighbor No. 9 Florals. Last week, on a particularly hot weekday afternoon, the colorful, maze-like shop was abuzz with shoppers browsing through booths populated with new and pre-loved merchandise running the gamut from Frida Kahlo-inspired T-shirts and Mexican imports (including rainbow-striped Acapulco chairs for $200) to a taxidermied bobcat ($350) and a 1966 issue of the Saturday Evening Post with Sonny and Cher on the cover ($12).